Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The curious case of Dr. Binayak Sen

Nowadays, activism is big business. What one needs is registering an NGO with a fancy name, technique of networking, a few candles and event management abilities. A bit of charisma and an off beat look will add to the flavor.

I mention this here because a few days ago, I met two youths having an animated discussion about holding a candle light march in support of Dr. Binayak Sen, who had been "harshly sentenced" for rendering "medical facilities" to poor tribals. Till then I had tit bits of information about the issue and was a little unnerved by the media space that this guy was getting. So, out of curiousity and concern, I asked them about the details of the case. They were honest in admitting that they had no more idea and this much information had been given to them by a "real activist". 

I tried to find more information from those who are intellectuals and was told that he is a genuinely good person but has become a victim of state atrocities. The activist in me started waking up because if today it is him, tomorrow it could be me. The next step was to find out the people and agencies supporting this cause. One of his supporters were Amnesty International

Their headlines screamed - Indian doctor Binayak Sen's conviction and life sentence mock justice.

Amnesty. Hmmm. The name is really pleasing. Interestingly, an acquaintance of mine, who is a teacher by profession and is a displaced Kashmiri Pandit had told me something about this organization. He told me that their community felt a ray of hope when a two member team of Amnesty International came to Kashmir in order to assess the violation of human rights in the valley. The nearly 5,00,000 Kashmiri pandits, who had been plundered and forced to move out of their land have been the worst sufferers of Jihadi atrocities expected that their greivances would be heard. 

The holy team did come to the valley and heard about the human rights violations. The small change was that their audience was Yasin Malik and Syed Ahmed Geelani. Yes. The separatists, who are behind the divisive forces of our country told them that there is gross human rights violation in the valley. The Kashmiri pandits waited for these champions of human rights to visit them in their refugee camps. Silly idiots.

I pondered on the injustice to the Kashmiri Pandits but then thought that may be they just forgot the two decades of suffering of these people and now have had a change of heart. So, I went to their online petition site and checked into the 'India' section

I expected to find out a petition supporting the victims of Deganga riots that happened just seven months ago. I was confident that I will see the petition because a group of intellectuals had appealed to the organization for help.  Guess What? No petition. I am sure that most citizens of our country are kept in dark regarding these riots in which army had to be called out.


I was a little perplexed. What could be the reason? Definitely, just adding one page petition is not so expensive. Then I found out their little secret. Their own member Gita Sehgal had exposed the Jihadi links of Amnesty international. What would such an empathetic organization do with such unruly employees who have pulled the mask off their face. Of course sack her. That is what they did. 


Now, if one supporter is ugly, that does not mean much. Let us move on to other supporters. Next on the list is one Kavita Krishnan of CPI (ML). Does the name ring a bell, as it did in my ears. No! Okay. She was in Delhi to support those who were pelting stones on our Jawans in the valley. If you do not believe me, then take a peek here. So, birds of same feather flock together.


When we are talking of divisive forces, should we miss out on our beautiful Arundhati Roy. She has given the sordid affair the generous dose of glamor here.


Another sympathiser is "eminent journalist" Praful Bidwai. If you do not remember, when our home minister was talking about saffron terror, this guy wrote generously on this saffron terror (If you are in line with the fashion, you become eminent). Just go through his article. You will notice that he talks about Col. Purohit and Saadhvi Pragya as terrorists of saffron hue although none of them has been convicted as yet. But when the color changes from saffron to red, the guy cries injustice although the accused has been convicted in a court of law. If it is not intellectual dishonesty, then, it is surely strange.


One more detail that is astounding is that Pragya thakur, who is, according to the yardstick of "eminent" journalist, is a terrorist is accused of selling a scooter to the alleged perpetrators where as Dr. Sen and his wife have been found providing accomodation and vouching for bank accounts of terrorist responsible for more then 300 deaths. Not only that, Sen has visited this person in jail 33 times in almost as many days.


Unlike, the buyer of scooter from Pragya, the person whom Sen visited, Narayan Sanyal, carried a prize of INR 12,00,000/- on his head and was involved in attack on Chandra Babu Naidu. Here I am not questioning the motives of his visit, because it is his constitutional right. I am questioning the sense of justice and fair treatment of our "eminent" jounalist.


So, it is not only the seekers of Azadi of Kashmir from atrocities of India but also color blind persons who are espousing the cause of Dr. Sen.


Enough of divisive forces withing country. Let us talk about national integration. Sonia G (not 2G) has a National Integration Council, which is chaired by our PM (who is helpless because of his coalition dharm) . Again a holy name. One of the persons in this council is a John Dayal (Mark the name), who also is the secretary general of All India Christian Council. He participated in a candle march on India gate Delhi. Take the trouble to go through the link. This man is also supporting Teesta Setalvad. The lady who has been reprimanded by Gujarat High court as well as Supreme Court of India. Presently she is being tried for perjury, because she was asking the witnesses to lie. So, these supporters are not only supporting those forces who are divisive but also those who do not respect the highest courts of the nation. If these are the kind of supporters, well, what can one say.


Now to even more serious part. In the last 64 years we have become a nation of third party references. So, I will follow the tradition

My fear is that though Christian friends nowadays do not say or admit it that Hindu religion is untrue, they must harbour in their breast that Hinduism is an error and that Christianity, as they believe it, is the only true religion. So far as one can understand the present (Christian) effort, it is to uproot Hinduism from her very foundation and replace it by another faith.
Gandhi (Harijan: March 13, 1937) 

He was REAL smart man. Today, I meet self proclaimed Gandhians, who will pee in their pants just thinking or responding to such lines or will try to twist them. But why have I mentioned it here? Think.

One natural supporter of Sen is his wife Elina Sen. I do not know if Sen is christian but his wife is. When I was watching her on NDTV, the channel of Prannoy Roy, uncle of Arundhati Roy, two things struck me. One the unusually generous coverage to her and the name she mentioned ISI. She was saying something to the effect that the courts have misunderstood ISI to be the pakistani notorious agency, whereas it was actually another ISI which is Indian Social Institute (another sweet sounding name) with which he was associated. Time to check out this social organization. Look at the name of govening body members and you will find out that it is an evangelical unit.

Now, this is what I stumbled upon while doing some background check.

The more one digs, more dirt comes out. I am not sure about the status of Dr. Sen. He may be just a doctor with a heart of gold, he may be a small fry for maoists, he may be just a sympathizer of tribals, he may be a proselytizing christian, he may have been implicated. To me he is a non issue or a minor issue at the most. The issue is our civil society. It can be taken for a ride by the propaganda machinery and very innocent people can be led to participate in a function which will turn out to be anti national. It is time we matured as a nation and had alternate modes of communicating the truth, without depending on forces who have their own axe to grind.

OH! By the way, did I mention that the organization that Dr. Sen was running with his wife had unaccounted Rupees 40,00,000/- in its account. That sounds large amount for a man touted as bare foot healer.

Just Wondering!

No comments:

Post a Comment